Tomato Bread Pudding and gym pet peeves

Over the summer, I tried a recipe for Scalloped Tomatoes with Croutons that I found over at Smitten Kitchen. The recipe originally came from the Barefoot Contessa herself (aka Ina Garten). I decided to make it because 1. I have a huge bag of garlic breadsticks from my Amish friends and 2. When I went grocery shopping this week, the tomatoes actually looked ripe and red instead of rock hard and yellowish/greenish in color. Hurray!

Tomatoes are one of my all time favorite vegetables fruits. While I can just cut them up and eat them, that isn’t very much fun as far as cooking goes. I try to look for creative ways to use them in recipes. This is best made in the summer with delicious and ripe Michigan tomatoes. But you won’t be disappointed with it anytime of the year. This is one of my favorite dishes for a few reasons: it is very easy, so tasty, quite addicting and versatile! Serve it as the main dish with an egg, serve it as a sidedish at a summer picnic or as an easy weeknight meal with grilled steak or chicken.

4 breadsticks, torn into small-medium pieces. Alternatively you can just use a regular old loaf of bread, cut into cubes

5-6 tomatoes, diced

1 T sugar

2 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic

2 t salt

1/2 cup or more fresh basil

1 cup parmesan

Preheat oven to 350. Heat oil in pan and throw in bread cubes. Stir frequently so they are covered in oil. Cook until the bread is browned on all sides.

Meanwhile, dice tomatoes and mix in a bowl with salt, sugar, garlic. Add to the bread crumbs and mix together over heat. Once the two are thoroughly mixed, remove from heat and stir in the basil. Pour the entire mixture into a baking dish and cover with cheese. Bake (uncovered) for 35 minutes.

The original version uses a little bit more oil than I did, but I think 2 T is enough. Let me know what you think if you try this one. I also used the breadsticks because I had them. I don’t think this is necessary but I did like the way they made crispier croutons than normal bread, so I think I will try with the breadsticks again. And the last change is I used some shredded cheddar because I ran out of parm, but if you have enough, stick with just the parmesan for this one. I cannot tell you enough how good this dish is–you have to try it for yourself. Try it now, then make sure to have it again in the summer when tomatoes are at their prime.

On to other things….

First, if you like LaraBars + chocolate (who doesn’t), then head over to Chocolate Covered Katie because she has a giveaway going on right now for Jocalot bars (the best flavor in my humble opinion)

Second, I was originally going to do a workout post, but I didn’t have a chance, so I will post it later this week. Also, the reason we don’t have a video from Sunday because we thought the gym was going to be empty and it was so crowded! The most we got was a few pictures because we didn’t want to look like total weirdo’s.

Speaking of weirdo’s…today I experienced quite a few of my ‘gym’ pet peeves. First, someone stole my water bottle! I don’t think it was on purpose but then I had to go back and forth to the drinking fountain which is annoying. Do you ever notice it is mostly guys who do this? That isn’t really a pet peeve though. My major pet peeve is when I’m on a treadmill and there are a ton of open treadmills and a person chooses the one directly next to me. This also happened today. I don’t know why that bothers me so much but it does. Second, I hate when people don’t use a towel on weight machines. Third, I hate when people try to save a ton of spots in a class. This is a recent pet peeve, because my gym gets super crowded after work and most classes are jam-packed. People try to save spots so that others can’t get in the class and the friend ends up showing up last minute or not at all! Annoying. Do I sound like a gym nazi or what?! One other thing that I more find humorous than anything else is how so many guys are SO loud when lifting weights. I think they think it will reflect them lifting a ton of weight or something but really they just sound dumbbbb. So guys if you are reading, girls are actually laughing at you when you do that, fyi.

I’M A GUY AND i THINK ALL THE LOUD NOISES ARE ANNOYING TOO. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU LOOK OVER AND THEY ARE PESSING 120 POUNDS MAX, AND THEY ARE ON THEIR 6TH REP. YOU WOULD THINK THEY WOULD SHUT UP ABOUT IT.

Karen and Katie

Hi, we are Karen and Katie (mother and daughter), living in Detroit and Chicago. We both love food, fitness and healthy living and started this blog to help document and share our lives through food, recipes, exercise and more! Thanks for stopping by our corner of the blogworld! Email us at info@2peasinablog.com